Wireless local area networks (“LANs”) use RF (radio frequency) signals to link two or more personal computers (“PCs”) or other devices without using wires. Particularly for home users, wireless networking has become very popular due to straightforward infrastructure installation, low cost, and the ease at which new devices may be added to the network. Most wireless networks will utilize one or more access points to match the footprint of wireless coverage to a desired area in the home. Sometimes an access point may be combined with a switch or gateway to enable PCs and devices on the wireless home network to connect to an external network such as the Internet.
Wireless RF signals are typically relatively high powered to accommodate variations in antenna designs in the transceivers that are incorporated into networked devices. While such high power generally supports good network performance, it can allow wireless data packets to be unintendedly intercepted by devices outside the network footprint. To deal with this situation, wireless network users will typically utilize one of a variety of encryption technologies that are commonly available such as WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) or WEP (Wired Equivalency Privacy).
Utilization of these technologies can make it difficult for the intercepted data to be decrypted and read. However, for such technologies to work each of the wireless devices on the network must have access to commonly-utilized network information. The information may include, for example, a network identification (“ID”) and a network “key” (i.e., secret information). A device will use the network information to discover and then be admitted to the network that it is looking to join.
While wireless networks generally perform satisfactorily, it is often inconvenient for users to populate the commonly-utilized network information across all of the devices that the user wishes to have on a given network. In particular, the network key, such as a WEP key, can comprise a long string of alphanumeric characters that must be identically and accurately entered into each device. While some wireless networkable devices provide a graphical user interface (“GUI”) or similar means to support manual entry of the required network information, such user interfaces will typically add cost and complexity to the device. In addition, data entry errors can still easily be made which is often a source of frustration to users who are simply looking to add a device to the wireless network without having to put in a lot of effort. Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve the manner in which network information may be populated in wireless networkable devices.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.